Let it be known that I was not a great fan
of Jacques Demy. When my husband ordered Les
parapluies de Cherbourg (The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg), I managed to sit through about 20 minutes of ‘singing’
before I gave up. When people on screen are singing every single word of
their dialogues, it gets tiring. (You want to hear a man sing ‘I cannot repair the car; I have a date’?)
Not to mention grating. I couldn’t relate to the plight of any of the
characters because the singing irritated me so much. Expressing an emotion in
song is one thing; ‘singing’ prosaic dialogue is another. Suffice it to say
that my husband and I disagreed thoroughly on the artistic merits of what’s
apparently a classic. I went up to bed, and probably escaped being murdered by
my exasperated husband.

Recently, he ordered Les demoiselles de Rochefort (The
Young Girls of Rochefort). Luckily for me, I didn’t realise it was by the
same director. I’d blocked the previous experience from my mind, and even
Sadu’s mention of Jacques Demy didn’t ring any warning bells. If it had, I
think, I might have gone up to bed right away. However, I’m glad my brain
wasn’t working. This film was, in my opinion at least, much better than the little I saw of the previous one.

The plot, what there is of it, is simple
enough, and takes place over a long weekend, Friday through Monday. Twin
sisters Delphine and Solange (real life sisters, Catherine Deneue and
Françoise Dorléac) have a dance studio where they teach dance (Delphine) and
piano (Solange).

Born under ‘the sign of Gemini’, the twins are tired and bored
of their lives – Delphine has just broken off a relationship with Guillaume
Lancien (Jacques Riberolles), the egotistical owner of a gallery in town – and
are desperate to go to Paris, where they hope to meet their ideal men, and a
better life.

When a fair comes to town, and Étienne
(George Chakiris) and Bill (Grover Dale), two ‘carnies’ who are travelling
across the country advertising the motorbikes they sell, need two girls to pull
in the crowds (their original act decamps), the girls agree to perform in
return for a ride to Paris.

The twins’ mother, Yvonne Garnier (Danielle
Darieux), runs a small café in the centre of town. She had, once upon a time,
given up the man she loved because he had a silly last name. She now regrets
it, but otherwise seems happy enough.

Simon Dame (Michael Piccoli), the recipient
of Delphine’s hopes regarding her musical career, has come to Rochefort in a
bid to forget his fiancée, who left him ten years ago; Maxence (Jacques Perrin), a
soon-to-be-demobbed sailor has the soul of an artist, and is searching for his
‘ideal femme’.

They are all searching for someone to love,
and their paths will cross and criss-cross in the space of these four days. How
they meet (or not), and how the denouement plays out, forms the crux of this
two-hour film.

The plot isn’t so much a ‘plot’ as it is a
continuous expression of this search. It’s an expression of longing, for an
ideal love on one hand and a lost love on the other. And in between, it’s a
pastiche of music and colour – both saturate every scene, every frame in the
film.

Purely as a film, the story it tells is
trite and often, mawkish. Playing out in the colours of Demy’s imagination (co-directed with his wife, Agnes Varda) with
the wings of Michael Legrand’s jazz-inspired musical score, and some excellent
acting all around, however, Le demoiselle
de Rochefort becomes a light, fast-paced entertainer.

Opening with a richly-coloured song
sequence on a suspended bridge, the scene segues into the twins’ apartment as
they celebrate their twin-ness (Nous sommes
une paire de jumeaux, Né dans le signe des gemins).
(The suspension bridge is one of only 24 'transport bridges, or ariel
bridges ever built. As of 2014, only 12 of them are still in use.)

While
Catherine Deneuve has the star wattage, her sister, Françoise Dorléac
(who tragically died soon after this film was released; she was 25) gets
better screen time.

Deneuve was no dancer, but
George Chakiris (of West
Side Story fame) and Grover Dalemore than make up in that department.

Depite
being named for these two young women, however, the film did give
enough space and time to the others', especially M.Dam and Maxence.

The sub-titles keep the
core of the original dialogues intact, and maintain the rhyme of the original
lyrics (Julian More) with ingenuity, if not preciseness. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort was Jacques Demy's homage to the Hollywood musical. With Gene Kelly coming in for an extended cameo, and George Chakiris, the American inspiration was secure.

However, the treatment of the film is purely French. Unlike
the usual Hollywood musical, the choreography 'moves' along with the
main dancers, with random people joining in at various times. The fact that a little boy (Boubou Garnier/) falls asleep after partaking
only too well of champagne, or that a musical can also refer to an axe-murderer?
That can only happen in France. If you like old-style musicals, with a soupçon of French flair, and want to watch pretty people in pretty costumes, dance around a town painted in pretty pastel colours, do watch this film. Even the melancholy is coloured with sweetness. Its joie de vivre is definitely an antidote to gloomy news, and dark skies, and a general mood of despondency.

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